I bouught this drum machine in 1994 used. I'm not a techie so reading or trying to program this thing was difficult if not impossible for me. Its written in techie language. So instead I used the pre-programed drums which I am only able to use about 4. I play in a 50 & 60's rocknroll band now but when I bought this was not playing out just in my basement. I have several keyboards roland, 300 GX and RD 500. My lattest addition is a Hamond XK--3C. So when home can run a bass line with left hand, chords and some leads with the right then sing through an antique PA. For a hobby would love to do a one man band with this thing maybe 2 gigs a year. Not sure if this can hold up. There is an internal battery not the regular one that if it goes so does the machine. Since they don't make this baby any longer difficult to get repaired.

Still not like a live drummer but with some tunes dam close. The fill part on the pre-programmed tunes is great. Programming the bass lines is time consuming so I don't use that feature. In fact programming a new drum beat is difficult to understand.

Any comments or suggestions I welcome. Am thinking about purchasing a new one. Any suggestions?

Rating: 3 out of 5
posted Friday-May-11-2012 at 10:48

Tam
a part-time user
from USA
writes:

I just recently got one of these off Ebay. I was looking for an older drum machine that wasn't huge in size, had built-in bass sounds (like the ZOOMs) and was relatively cheap. After reading all the reviews on here, this sounded like the model to get. These people aren't lying. I LOVE this drum machine. Because of the battery power, I carry it around in my bag and whenever I get an idea for a groove, I can lay it down. The beats are pretty straight when you first enter them, but once you add the "swing" function, the beats get a lot cooler. This is the best cheap older drum machine out there. If you can find one for $50 or less, buy it without thinking about it. You won't be sorry. I wasn't. BUY IT!!!

Rating: 5 out of 5
posted Friday-Mar-25-2005 at 11:09

GEO
a part-time user
from USA
writes:

Well I should never have sold my original 6 or so years back. Just got one off ebay for $32 tho ( :) I got £150 for the old one).

If you see one of these at a good price snap it up! this has to be the most instant and easily usable drum machine ever built!

The implementation of grid/step edit on this thing is probably still the best ever, I would say only the Korg Em-1 comes close. Yamaha need to make an RM2X with this exact grid edit system.

OK for the price u get 47 kicks and 47 snares and a whole host of other sounds. All of the samples in the RY10 are that bit "different". It covers all bases soundwise. The BASSES aren't exactly mindblowing but are nice to have all the same.

You get 15 preset and 15 user kits, each kit has 2 banks of 12 pads and 1 bass sound. There aren't any onboard effects but some samples were recorded with effects. It has a LO-FI edge and some truly useful sounds whether you want techno or metal or something new. The 50 spaces for user patterns could be limiting to some but i find it adequate. You can play the kits over MIDI so you can use this to add some extra percussion to your midi setup.

Guitarists out there, you can also have some fun with this, it has an instrument input so you can hook up and play along with the beats and also has a great onboard guitar tuner! you can use this as a headphone amp as well as a tuner and rhythm section.

OK the bad points: IT HAS NO MIDI OUT!!!!! what a feature that was to miss off! no backups of the kits and patterns to computer or datafiler via midi! Tape backup only! also you cant use it to clock other midi gear, it ends up sitting at the end of the chain. And the built in speaker is super tinny!!!

its been 8 years scence mine broke down (1995, RIP) bought it brand new in 1993, first peace of kit, if you don't count the dj gear...

i miss it. it was fun.

posted Tuesday-May-20-2003 at 23:48

DreamSequence
a part-time user
from USA
writes:

This was the first bit of electronic music gear I ever bought. I bought it to go with my casette 4-track and my guitar and I think I paid 120.00 brand new (closeout). It tought me alot. A friend of mine showed me how to use the (dead simple) interface, and the audio mix-thru input saved me a track (could put the bass and drums down in one stereo pass). Time passed, I got a 486 w/ a copy of cakewalk for DOS, a Roland mpu-401 compatable interface, and a kawai k-11 (with general midi drumkits and reverb, whoo!) to record with, and the RY10 went in the closet. More time passed and I never sold it 'cause I couldn't get 50 bucks for it. No one wanted it, my friends had boss drummachines (dr-550 et al). 2002 and I'm doing electronic music now. The k11 and the 486 are long gone. On a whim I haul the ry10 out of the closet, sync it to my main sequencer, and run a pattern with a song I'm working on. and HOLY SHIT it sounds AMAZING! The lowish-fi "electronic" drumset is HARD AS HELL. The sequencer timing is STRAIGHT-UP ROBOTIC (which pissed me off when I bought it but now it's perfect). And it sounds fresh 'cause who uses this thing? (Though that may change... mabye I shouldn't post this...)

Problems? No individual outs. No way to change patterns via midi. (Pattern change commands change the pad bank). Patterns are only 1 bar long. Will not change songs without stopping the sequencer. So if I want to use this thing live I've got to have fast fingers. Mabye I'll just sample the patterns and use them as loops...

For a drum machine I wrote off years ago, this is all gravy. Moral of the story- if you feel a strange twinge when you hold an obsolete piece of gear, keep it. You never know...